


This Brand New Colony

by mymidsummersunshine



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Established Relationship, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:27:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28779750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mymidsummersunshine/pseuds/mymidsummersunshine
Summary: Matt and Anders have big dreams for their future, but maybe they’re within reach
Relationships: Anders Bjork/Matt Grzelcyk
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	This Brand New Colony

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry for the songfic in the year 2021 but I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I think this song really suits them, so I hope you agree! It’s a little all over the place but I hope it makes sense
> 
> Title and lyrics from Brand New Colony by The Postal Service!

_I’ll be the grapes fermented, bottled and served with the table set in my finest suit, like a perfect gentleman_

The second Matt sits down across from him, smiling softly, Anders wonders why he was ever so nervous for this date. It’s a much nicer restaurant than they usually go to, but for their anniversary, they figured they could splurge a little. Plus Matt looks damn good in his suit.

“Hey,” he says, putting his coat on the back of his chair before sitting down. “Sorry I’m late.”

“You’re not, I was early,” Anders assures him. They fall into conversation naturally from there, and he feels himself relax a little.

The waiter comes over with the wine menu, and Anders lets Matt order a glass for them both, he knows much more about this stuff than Anders does, before they place their meal orders. 

The food is delicious, not that they expected anything different from such a nice place, and even though Matt spills steak sauce on his nice white shirt, he says it doesn’t matter. Anders gets a seafood special, which Matt steals a couple bites of, and he wishes they could get stuff like this more often, but right now, it’s just not realistic. But it does make it all the more meaningful that they get to have it now, for such a special occasion.

They split a single dessert since they’re both pretty full, and Anders contemplates feeding it to Matt with his fork, but decides against it, they are still in public. That can wait until they get home. 

“This was nice,” Matt says as they exit the restaurant hand in hand, and Anders nods in agreement.

“It was. But I’m exhausted.” He yawns, only emphasizing his point. 

Matt squeezes his hand. “Let’s go home, then.”

—

_I’ll be the fire escape that’s bolted to the ancient brick where you will sit and contemplate your day_

Anders gets all the way through taking off his shoes, putting his bag away, and sitting down on the couch, before he realizes Matt isn’t there. He looks up, confused, and notices the window is open, and when he goes to investigate, sure enough, he’s sitting out on the fire escape. He knocks on the glass slightly to alert him that he’s there, and Matt looks up and smiles.

“Hey,” he says. “How was your day?”

“Not bad. What are you doing out here?”

Matt shrugs. “Just thinking, I guess. It’s nice out so I wanted to be outside.”

“Makes sense. Can I join you?”

“Of course.”

Anders climbs the rest of the way out the window and sits down next to him, looking at the view of the city. The sun is just about to set over the horizon, casting an orange glow over everything, some of the cars on the highway already turning on their headlights as they sit in traffic. These long summer days aren’t going to last much longer, Anders realizes. Matt was right to enjoy the warmth while he can.

They sit in comfortable silence watching the sunset before Matt speaks up.

“As beautiful as this is,” he starts, and Anders looks over at him. “I want to move out of here at some point.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. I want to buy a house with you. A nice little house, but with a big front porch where we can enjoy our morning coffee, and a big yard where maybe we can have a dog.”

Anders takes a second to think about it. “I like that plan,” he says. “Maybe we can live near the beach. We can take our dog on morning walks in the sand.”

“We can paint the walls whatever color we want. We could even plant a little garden in the summer.”

Matt sighs, and Anders takes his hand. 

“Some day,” he promises. “I don’t know when, but I want to do all those things with you, love.”

Matt smiles and looks back out at the skyline, the sun completely set now, and rests his head on Anders’ shoulder. “I can’t wait.”

They stay there in silence until Matt starts getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, before reluctantly heading back inside.

—

_I’ll be the water wings that save you if you start drowning in an open tab when your judgement’s on the brink_

Anders wishes his heart rate would slow down. He knows Matt’s fine, or at least he says he is, and he knows there’s nothing he can do about it, he should leave it up to the doctors. But he wants to see it for himself.

He finally makes it to the hospital and, after getting his room number from the front desk, makes his way into the elevator, then rushes down the hall into the room. Matt is lying down on the bed and looks up when he hears him come in, smiling weakly.

“Hey, honey,” he says. “Sorry for the scare.”

Anders lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He drags the guest chair right up next to the bed, then grabs Matt’s hand, the one that’s not wrapped up in a cast. He does seem physically alright, other than the cast, and that helps Anders calm down a little.

“What happened?” he asks. All he knows is the brief text he got from Matt to say he had fallen and hurt his wrist and was going to the hospital, but not to worry. Of course, that just made Anders worry more.

“I fell off the stepladder trying to change the lightbulb in the living room that went out,” he explains. “I couldn’t quite reach so I had to go onto the top step, which they always say not to do, and, well, I guess now I know why.” He holds up his arm.

“Is it broken?”

“Yeah. I have to wear this for six weeks.”

“Oof. I’m sorry, love.”

The doctor comes back into the room and asks Matt a few more questions, then says he can go. They check out and head back to Anders’ car, Matt had gotten a ride from their lovely retired neighbor Mr. McQuaid, so they definitely owe him a nice home-cooked meal, then start the drive home.

“You might need to drive me around for a while,” Matt says. “I’m not supposed to operate heavy machinery.”

“It’s a good thing you work from home most days, then.”

—

_I’ll be the phonograph that plays your favorite albums back as you’re lying there, drifting off to sleep_

As soon as he walks through the door, Anders can tell that Matt is trying his best to look composed, to hide that anything might be wrong, but he can see right through it.

“You okay, love?” he asks cautiously as he sits down on the couch, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Matt completely unravels.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay,” he whispers, wrapping him up into a hug and rubbing his hands up and down to soothe him. He keeps whispering to him as he lets out his tears, only stopping once Matt pulls back from the hug first.

“Sorry,” he whispers, sniffling. “It’s been a long day.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m sorry you had such a bad day. Do you want to talk about it?”

Matt shakes his head. “I just want to go to bed.”

“You want me to come, too?” Anders asks, and Matt nods. “Okay. Let’s go.”

They stand up and move into the bedroom. Matt collapses on the bed immediately, while Anders goes to put a CD into the player, knowing Matt likes noise as he sleeps. He usually uses headphones since Anders prefers quiet, but Anders thinks the CD might be better in this case. He briefly glances through their collection before choosing one that he had bought for Matt on their anniversary, a band they both like who they keep talking about hopefully seeing in person one day. Once the first track starts playing he lies down in the bed next to Matt, wrapping an arm around him and burying his face in his hair. Matt sighs and inches himself closer.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers again, but Anders shakes his head.

“It’s okay, love. We all have bad days. I’m here for you.”

“Mmm.” He picks up Anders’ hand to play with it. Anders starts to softly sing along to the songs, thankful he picked an album he knows every word to as he feels Matt get more and more relaxed, his breathing evening out until he falls completely asleep. He contemplates getting up, he never got a chance to eat dinner, but he finds he’s also too comfortable to move, so he kisses the top of his head and snuggles himself in further before drifting off himself. 

—

_I’ll be the platform shoes, undo what heredity's done to you, you won’t have to strain to look into my eyes_

When Anders gets home from work, he hangs up his coat, but pauses when he goes into the living room and sees Matt walking around in circles.

“Whatcha doing, love?” he asks, and Matt looks up, slightly embarrassed to have been caught.

“Trying to break in these boots,” he says, lifting up one foot as an example. “I needed them for a thing for work, and I’ve never worn heels before so I figured I should practice.”

They’re not really heels, they’ve just got a little bit of a wedge, but Anders can see why they’d be an adjustment to the regular shoes he usually wears.

“What do you need special shoes for?” he asks, crossing the room to join him on the other side.

Matt flushes and looks down at his feet. “They needed me to be taller.”

Anders accidentally laughs out loud, and Matt punches his shoulder lightly.

“Shut up!” he protests. “It’s not funny! They literally said I was throwing off the look because everyone else is over six feet.”

“I’m sorry,” Anders apologizes, wrapping both arms around Matt’s waist, and Matt lets him. “I shouldn’t have laughed, that’s rude of them. You’re the perfect size.”

Matt looks up, straight into his eyes now that they’re about the same height. “The extra height is nice though, I will admit,” he says.

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“I like not having to look up at you.”

Anders laughs again, and this time, Matt joins in.

“Maybe you should wear the boots more often, then,” he says.

“Hey, I thought I was the perfect size.”

“You are,” Anders assures him, “but if you like the extra height, then who am I to deny it to you?”

“Hmm. I’ll accept that.” He smiles at him, and Anders smiles right back, before leaning forward to kiss his nose. Matt giggles, then kisses him properly on the lips.

—

_I’ll be your winter coat, buttoned and zipped straight to the throat with the collar up so you won’t catch a cold_

“You wanna go for a walk?” Matt asks after a long stretch of comfortable silence. 

Anders looks up from his phone and nods. “Sure,” he says. 

They both stand up and put shoes on, and coats and hats and gloves, but Anders can’t resist a little laugh when Matt pulls his hoods from both his sweatshirt and big puffy winter coat up over his head, and zips up his coat as far as it will go.

“You look like a marshmallow,” he says, and Matt glares at him from around the scarf that’s wrapped around his mouth and nose.

“At least I won’t catch a cold,” he points out, voice slightly muffled. Anders just shakes his head, taking his hand before they both head out the front door.

He will admit, it is pretty chilly out, but not enough that he feels like he needs as many layers as Matt has on, he thinks he’ll be just fine in one coat. They walk around the neighborhood hand in hand, a nice warmth radiating between them even with the gloves on, mostly in silence, just taking in their surroundings. They pause once to pet a cute puppy (with permission from the owner), and when they stand up to continue their loop, Matt speaks up.

“We should get a dog,” he says.

“Hmm. Maybe once we’re out of the apartment.” He shivers slightly at a cold blast of wind, and Matt just squeezes his hand.

“Okay.”

They make their way back home, then up the stairs and into their apartment, shedding all their layers before settling back in on the couch with a hot chocolate each and a blanket to share. Anders sighs as he feels himself warming up from the inside out.

“You okay?” Matt asks.

Anders nods. “It’s nice to be warm.”

“I was never cold, thanks to my marshmallow coat,” he teases.

“You did look like a marshmallow.”

Matt sticks his finger in his hot chocolate, then boops Anders’ nose so the half-melted marshmallows stick to it. “Hey, all I’m saying is that if one of us catches a cold, it’s not gonna be me.”

“It won’t be me, either! And you better be planning on kissing that off,” he adds about the marshmallows. Matt does.

A few days later, when Anders wakes up with a terrible cold and he can’t breathe through his nose, Matt just shakes his head and whispers, “I told you so.” Anders just groans and pulls his pillow over his head.

—

_I want to take you far from the cynics in this town, and kiss you on the mouth_

They’re eating dinner at the table for once, instead of on the couch, though Anders finds he’s hardly eating at all. He’s too excited to tell Matt what he found out today.

“So,” he says, and Matt looks up. “I’ve got some good news.”

Matt looks nervous. “Oh?”

“You okay?” Anders asks.

“Oh, yeah, it’s nothing, I just had a question for you, too,” he says nervously.

“Oh.”

“But you go first,” he insists. “What’s the good news?”

“Okay.” He takes a deep breath. “I got offered a new job,” he says.

Matt’s jaw practically hits the floor. “Oh my god, that’s awesome! I’m so happy for you! Where is it?”

“So, it’s kind of far out of the city, but right in one of the beach towns. But I’ll also be making a lot more, and with how much we’ve saved, that leads me to my next news: I think we can finally buy our beach house together.”

“Really?!”

“Really!”

Matt sets his fork down and puts his head in his hands. “This is so much,” he says. “But I’m so fucking happy, you have no idea. Is this really happening?”

“It is, love. It’s real.” Anders almost can’t believe it himself.

Matt looks back up. “When do you start?”

“The end of the month. I know the lease here isn’t up for a while, but I doubt we can afford anything move-in ready anyway, so it will give us time to renovate something, and I’ll just deal with the sucky commute in the meantime.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. To get everything we’ve dreamed of... it’ll be worth it to me.” He pauses as he suddenly remembers something. “Wait, didn’t you say you had a question for me?”

“Oh, yeah. I got so distracted by the house news.” Matt stands up and moves around the table so he’s standing right next to Anders, hand in his pocket, still looking nervous.

“I don’t know if this comes to that level of excitement, but...” he takes his hand out of his pocket, and with it a small black box, and gets down on one knee. Anders drops his fork on the floor and doesn’t even bother picking it up.

“Will you marry me?” Matt asks quietly.

It takes Anders’ brain a solid few seconds to come up with words. “You mean I get my dream job, dream house, and dream man all in one day?!” he finally gets out.

“So that’s a yes?”

“Of course it’s a yes, Matt, oh my god! Get over here!” He practically drags Matt up off the floor and pulls him into a hug, which Matt is quick to return. 

“I love you so fucking much, you know that?” Matt says into his shoulder, slightly muffled, and Anders presses a kiss to the top of his head.

“I love you, too, future hubby.”

He lets go of Matt only long enough for him to put on the ring, then pulls him right back in for a long kiss.

—

_We’ll cut our bodies free from the tethers of this scene, start a brand new colony_

“What do you think of this one?” Matt says. Anders starts his new job tomorrow, but they still haven’t found a house to buy yet, so they’re spending the evening looking through Zillow listings. Matt hands his laptop over to Anders for him to look through the pictures.

“It’s cute,” Anders says. “The kitchen definitely needs work, and probably the bathroom, but it’s a good size, big yard, it looks like.”

“Yeah. And it’s walking distance to the beach, too!”

“Oh, nice! Do you want to book a tour?”

“Yeah, let’s go see it.”

It’s a few weeks later, when Anders is finally getting into the swing of things at work, that he gets a text from Matt telling him to call when he gets a chance. He does as soon as he’s in the car for his lunch break.

“Hey, love, what’s up?” he asks when Matt picks up.

“We got the house!”

“We did?!” Anders almost drops his phone in excitement.

“We did! I was going to tell you when you got home but I couldn’t wait that long.”

“No, oh my god, I’m glad you told me now! Oh, man, when do we get it officially?”

“Two weeks! And then we can start renovations, and hopefully that’ll be done when this lease is up at the end of the summer.”

Anders let’s put a little laugh, just out of pure happiness. “Hopefully. This is awesome, I can’t wait, love.” He sneaks a look at the clock on the dashboard. “But I have to go, I only have fifteen more minutes of break and I still have to eat.”

“Okay, I’ll see you when you get home. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He hangs up, smiling wide. They’re finally getting their house.

—

_Where everything will change, we’ll give ourselves new names, identities erased_

The decisions just don’t stop. Between the wedding planning and the house renovations, there’s so many decisions and choices that neither of them ever realized they would have to make. Anders thinks of yet another one.

“Are you taking my name, or am I taking yours? Or are we hyphenating?” he asks one day as they’re sitting at the table mapping out their new kitchen.

“I’m not sure hyphenating is the best idea,” Matt points out. “We have, uh...” he trails off, and Anders tries not to laugh as he has to stop and count out the letters, because he knows he’d do the same thing.

“We have thirteen letters between us,” he finally says, “and only two and a half vowels. People have enough trouble spelling our names as it is.”

“True.”

“I say we just keep them, if that’s alright with you?”

Anders nods. “I agree, Mr. Grzelcyk.”

Matt blushes. “Thanks, Mr. Bjork. Now, about this island...”

“If you say waterfall edge I’m removing it myself.”

—

_The sun will heat the ground under our bare feet in this brand new colony (in this brand new colony)_

Anders wakes up late the first morning in the new house, about a week or so after the wedding. Sunlight is already streaming through the window, and Matt is already gone, he finds out as he rolls over. He stands up and stretches, then makes his way into the kitchen to make some coffee. Once it’s ready he goes out onto the front porch, where he finds Matt standing in the yard in his pajamas and bare feet, just looking down at the grass. He looks up when Anders shuts the front door.

“Morning, honey,” he calls. Anders makes his way down the few steps into the yard to join him.

“What are you doing out here?” he asks, carefully moving his mug to one hand so he can give him a hug.

“I’ve never lived in a house with a yard before,” Matt admits. “I like the feeling of the grass.”

Anders laughs softly. “City kid,” he whispers to himself, but Matt hears him.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. But we don’t ever have to move into a grass-less house again if you don’t want to, I promise.”

Matt sighs and leans back into Anders’ chest. “Never ever.”

Anders rocks them back and forth gently, looking down the road, where he can just see the sun shining on the ocean in the distance. This is everything he’d ever dreamed about, and now, it’s their reality. He can’t believe he got so lucky.

—

_Everything will change._

**Author's Note:**

> Come follow me on tumblr @mymidsummersunshine!


End file.
